I’ve written a few things for ETP recently (see ‘About me’ section if you’re interested). I was pleased with my recent article about blogging (issue 104) as I got some interesting responses from other teachers.

Do you have a favourite recipe you want to share?

Ha, er… beans on toast?! I like cooking but I’m not great at it, plus I forget recipes quickly. I did eat some awesome beetroot hummus the other day, maybe I’ll learn to make that.

What’s the last photo you took?

What’s the last piece of music you listened to?

What was the last film or TV show you watched? Would you recommend it?

I watched a documentary about Alan Shearer speaking with people connected to England team at Euro 96. It wasn’t that good actually, I wouldn’t bother watching it.

Here are a couple of tips from my recent article on the topic, which coincidentally referenced Sandy Millin!

What’s your memory of the best lesson you’ve taught?

I remember happy faces, and some lovely comments on post-it note feedback at the end of class. It was a lesson based on Six Thinking Hats

Have you ever made a mistake or been in a bad situation which felt huge at the time, but now you’re really glad it happened?

Absolutely. I was doing my PGCE in secondary English about 7 years ago. I chose the wrong course – the whole thing wasn’t for me really. I felt a lot of pressure to succeed and circumstances didn’t help things. With about 5 weeks of the course left I just dropped out.

At the time this felt like a bad decision, and I felt like a failure. However, a month later I met the love of my life. A month after that I flew to South Korea and joined the EPIK scheme. I got my confidence back and decided to make TEFL my career. Since then things have fallen into place, and I’m happy – that wasn’t the case 7 years ago!

Where are you based and would you recommend it to others?

I work for the British Council in Bangkok. There are 5 centres in the city, and mine is very cosy. We have about 10 teachers, everyone is hard-working and committed to the job. We have some nice office banter and collaborate well. Yep, I like it and I’d recommend it. I learn a lot from my colleagues here, and I’m given freedom and encouraged to develop.

What question do you wish I’d asked you, and what’s the answer?

The one that Sandy answered about languages. I wish I could speak another language fluently. In the future I’d like to live in Spain – Spanish is the only language I’ve been ok at. I actually got to intermediate level while at university, but I’ve hardly used the language since so I’d be very bad at it now! I did allright with Korean, I can just about get my message across in Thai, but I’m terrible at German despite studying it for so long.

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One comment

Thanks for joining in Pete, and for referencing me in your article. The photo of the dinosaurs made me laugh, and the kingfisher is beautiful.
Mum and I do cryptic crosswords when we’re together, and we can normally finish them eventually, although sometimes it takes a few goes! We’ve worked our way through a couple of books explaining how to do them, which really helped.
Good luck with the language learning!
Sandy

“The more radical the person is, the more fully he or she enters into reality so that, knowing it better, he or she can transform it. This individual is not afraid to confront, to listen, to see the world unveiled.― Paulo Freire